Murano Island Venice

As you step into the magical city of Venice, you can almost view the scenery accompanied by a beautiful orchestra in the background. Many people might think that this beauty would be limited to the main island where St. Mark’s square, the clock tower, the grand canal, or the Doge’s Palace are. But Venice has many wonders, and this even includes the islands that surround it, along with their own interesting sights and stories.

One of these interesting islands is to the north of Venice. It’s called Murano, but do you know what other name it goes by? The glass island. This is because it’s been making famous Murano glass since 1291—that’s more than 700 years of skilled craftsmanship.

It started out as a Roman settlement, but one day the Venetian republic made all its glass factories transfer to Murano because they were fire hazards to the mostly wooden structures of Venice. Soon, the glassmakers dominated the island and were counted among its high-class citizens. They could carry swords, they were exempted from prosecution and they even wed their children to the noblest of families in the island! The one catch though was that they could never leave the Republic. It was said that the punishment for this was assassination or having their hands chopped off. Pretty harsh, wasn’t it? When you visit Murano, you’ll see a lot of “palaces” too, because the island became a popular resort for rich families in the 15th century. Try to visit the Palazzo Da Mula, it’s a must see.

Of course, you have to visit the glass factories and glass shops that are all around the island. The Mazzega Glass Factory is a popular one, and your jaw will drop at the beauty of the work of all the glassmakers on this island. It’ll be like visiting a fairytale land, your mind will be blown by so many of the colorful little animals, flowers and art pieces on display everywhere. There’s even a glass museum if you found yourself really addicted to the beauty of glassblowing. They sell glassworks around the island too, so if you’d want to pick up a really unique souvenir, this is the place to do it.

It’s easy to get to the island, you just have to start at Fondamenta Nove and take the vaporetto (number 12, 13, 14 or 42) to Murano.